Teachers, clerks in Pakistan's Rawalpindi go on strike against changes to pension rules

Rawalpindi [Pakistan], October 11 (ANI): Teachers and Clerks have called on a strike in Rawalpindi in government offices against changes to the pension and leave encashment laws, Dawn reported.
Teachers and clerks will continue to walk out in protest of changes to the legislation governing pension and leave encashment as long as their demands are not fulfilled.
Several public schools in the district were closed on the orders of the Punjab Teachers Association and the All Pakistan Clerk Association, and a pen-down strike was observed in government buildings, including the deputy commissioner and commissioner's offices.
Students were forced to return home after teachers locked classes due to the ongoing protest. The Punjab caretaker government's revisions to the pension and leave encashment laws are the reason for the strike, reported Dawn.
"The caretaker government decided to give pensions to government employees on the basis of their basic pay of the first months of their service. Earlier, the pension was provided on the running basic pay while leave encashment has also been reduced significantly," Raja Shahid Mubarak, a senior leader of the Punjab Teachers Association, told Dawn.
According to him, the government workers and teachers were opposing the discriminatory policy choice made by the caretaker administration, which lacked the power to do so. He claimed it was unfair to teachers and other government workers who had dedicated 25 years of their lives to public service.
He claimed that because rising inflation had already made their lives unpleasant, the non-teaching employees at schools were upset by the new regulations.
Teachers and government workers also protested outside the commissioner's office.
Teachers gathered outside the commissioner's office to document the protest while all of the associations' officeholders travelled to Lahore to take part in a protest march there. (ANI)